Week in Class: Weeks 13-20 the Lost Files

February10

Hidden Message in Credit Card
I have been a super-bad correspondent since winter break started over a month ago. For this I will apologize. Writing about what I am actually doing in my class is important, and not just for the handful of readers perusing my blog. It’s important for me to think honestly about my practices, and to try to do better. What was I doing?

  1. I had a major bought of nesting around my home, putting in a nook, reorganizing my study and kitchen, canning marmalade (not so successful, but still lots of fun).
  2. I relaxed, I’ve been going to the gym, I’ve been spending time with family, watching Netflix, and reading novels. For the first time, my husband took off all Thanksgiving week, and two weeks at Christmas to spend so we were ALL together for a break.
  3. I’ve been working with colleagues at my work discussing what we’re doing with Common Core and in our classrooms more generally.

My time has not been wasted, but I’m overdue to get back on the blogging habit, so…here I am.

Working on projects and including inclusion students in it

Last year, due to family issues, I was not able to participate in a grade-wide project around country reports called “Tour of Nations”. This year I am participating, and it’s been a great chance to work on adapting a complex, long-term project both for kids getting special education pull-out services (RSP), and the students who come over in the afternoon for inclusion time from the self-contained special education class (SDC-Mild/Moderate). I’m happy with how things are going, and two assignments in, most of the students are on track, and there is still enough give in the schedule for those who aren’t.

Using online resources for writing and research

I had students do their first research reports using a class wiki. With extra laptop carts at my site (one per grade-level doing CCSS/SBAC testing), I’m now having them do their weekly writing assessments on the wiki as well. In addition, because some of my students, and many of the inclusion students have limited access to online resources at home, they’re doing their research on their country using the laptops. There have been some problems, but I’m in the middle of resolving those issues, so will talk about it later.

CCSS/SBAC/SCUSD Benchmarks not ready for prime time

Our district had us to two constructed response/performance tasks in ELA and mathematics. I’m not letting any secrets out by saying the process was a fiasco. First, they told teacher to give and score the tasks by Winter Break (word came out about this in November). A number of teachers at some sites did this resulting in a whole lotta “volunteer time” that is the basis of a labor grievance. They then got around to negotiating a deal with the union to take one-time CCSS implementation money from the state to buy back one furlough day (6 hours) that could be used for this, but some principals got in the way of using these hours for scoring the Benchmarks. To give you an idea of how much time it takes to score these, my grade level team (2 teachers, plus an RSP teacher) took 6 hours to grade ~62 of these, and needed an extra hour (no, we didn’t volunteer) to enter the scores.

In addition to the workload issues with this assessment, the assessment itself was awful. For sixth grade they gave a question involving geometry, which isn’t taught until the Spring. I’ll leave it at that.

Why I can’t stand global warming

Even though the weather’s delightful in California (as opposed to the rest of the nation) there is a downside to this. Twelve year olds, like the trees, respond to the weather. When it warms up in spring, their adolescence really comes out. With all this delightful weather my class has been more than a handful. In addition, we’re set to go on a 4-day field trip in the Sierras the week after next, which is a stressor. I have no magic bullets at this point. I’m talking to students and urging them on the path of righteousness. I’m contacting parents when that fails, or giving them short time outs from the classroom (for both our sakes). I’m also hitting the gym 3 times a week.  I know, I know, don’t hate me because I’m beautiful!

There are new photos up (mostly showing mathematics) and class discussions (mostly about ELA/Social Studies/Science)

Image credit: Hidden Message in Credit Card by philipbouchard, on Flickr

4 Comments to

“Week in Class: Weeks 13-20 the Lost Files”

  1. March 11th, 2014 at 4:54 pm      Reply kylelacko93 Says:

    Hi Alice,

    I’m a student currently learning how to be a teacher. Reading on your reflections about how students use online resources for writing and researching is very interesting as I find that the current and new technologies we use allow us to reflect upon our own learning and how we approach new information.

    Am I able to provide a “pingback” (mentioning your blog and a link to direct readers to your blog posts) to show how many of us as teachers reflect on how online resources are used?

    Kyle


  2. March 11th, 2014 at 5:26 pm      Reply kylelacko93 Says:

    Sorry what I meant was asking if I could provide a link on one of my own blog posts to show people how teachers like yourself happen to reflect on everyday learning with technology, citation included and all.

    Kyle


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